Alorra the Elven Archer
| upkeep_cost = | req = | moves = | melee = | ranged = | defense = | resist = | hits = | item_slot_1 = | item_slot_2 = | item_slot_3 = | abilities = Ranged Attack x8 Blademaster Forester Caster ( ) | random_abilities = 3 (Any) | extra_spells = * Resist Magic * Flight }} Alorra the Elven Archer is one of the 35 Hero units featured in Master of Magic. Alorra is a Champion. She may randomly appear for hire if a wizard has at least , in which case her Hiring Cost is by default. Alternatively, Alorra can be summoned using the Summon Champion spell. Alorra has two attack types: a Melee Attack and a Ranged Missile Attack. The Ranged Attack is the more powerful in terms of sheer numerical comparison, but both are very effective - especially thanks to the Blademaster ability, which will cause Alorra's score to soar quickly as she gains Experience. To support these attacks, Alorra also has adequate defensive properties. Alorra has the innate ability of Forester, which allows her to move into Forest tiles at a cost of 1 Movement Point per tile. This also applies to any units stacked together with Alorra. Alorra has a modest ( Caster) ability and knows the bonus spells and . On top of these abilities, Alorra receives 3 additional Random Abilities, chosen from any of the available Hero skills in the game. Since they are selected at random, these abilities can make Alorra very powerful - or fail to add any significant advantage. The chosen abilities can greatly influence her role in the game. Alorra may be equipped with the basic fare of Magical Items, and can additionally be equipped with a Bow instead of a melee weapon, to increase the power of her . Alorra's Upkeep Cost is per turn, unless she has randomly acquired the Noble trait. General Description Despite her title, Alorra the Elven Archer is a well-rounded warrior. She has trained in many forms of combat, and can even cast some spells. The ancient High Elves that passed their knowledge to her made sure that she does not lack the versatility that is often required in the heat of battle. Alorra seems to have a rather strange appearance, even for an elf. She has the characteristic pointed-ears, but her hair is a light-blue color and her eyes are like two large black holes - terrifying her opponents to no end. Alorra is dressed in a long pink robe, and rides a light-brown horse. Initial Properties All data below assumes Alorra is at her lowest Experience Level, and without any Magical Items or Random Abilities - After all, any Hero can become devastatingly powerful after gaining several levels and powerful items. Please refer to the tables and chapters below for more information. Attack Properties Alorra the Elven Archer's primary mode of attack is a of relatively-high strength. She also possesses a of somewhat weaker strength - though in practice both attacks have similar effectiveness. Alorra's Ranged Attack has a default strength of . Given a basic To Hit chance of , she can be expected to deliver about with this attack, on average. This is a good damage output, which can easily pierce through most armor - but only when the target is very close. If the distance is at least 3 tiles, penalties apply, reducing this damage output considerably. Thus, a low-level Alorra may struggle to inflict damage on well-armored units at a distance. This Ranged Attack may only be used up to 8 times per battle. If these attacks run out, Alorra may be forced to switch to her Melee Attack. Alternatively, she may prefer to use her Melee Attack, which is more reliable in terms of damage output. Alorra's Melee Attack has a default strength of . With no bonuses, she can be expected to deliver about on average. This is an average damage output for a low-tier Hero, is unlikely to hurt anything except lightly-armored units, such as low-tier Normal Units. Since it delivers little damage, Alorra may need to repeatedly strike her foe, putting himself at risk in the process. Note that both attacks benefit from the Blademaster skill, which gradually increases Alorra's score as she gains Experience. Eventually both attacks can become extremely deadly. Defensive Properties By default, Alorra the Elven Archer has a Defense score of . This enables her to block, on average, about from any damage source. This allows Alorra to go up against most low-tier Normal Units with relative safety. Remember of course that Alorra is not a heavy-hitter herself, at least until she gains some Experience, and may still need to exchange many blows with her opponents - putting herself at risk. Alorra possesses by default. This is a respectable amount for a low-level Hero, and should allow her to survive a few hits from low-tier Normal Units. She is not nearly healthy enough to take on any serious opposition though. As with most Heroes, Alorra possesses a default Resistance score of . This makes her somewhat vulnerable to Curses and other combat maledictions. It will take at least 4 Experience Levels before she can become immune to some of these effects, assuming no Magical Items or Random Abilities augment it. Other Properties Alorra the Elven Archer has a basic Hero's Movement Allowance of . This is good for speeding up her movement on the overland map, through plain land tiles like Grassland and Deserts. During battle, Alorra may need to use her speed to avoid her enemies. Furthermore, thanks to her Forester ability, Alorra spends only 1 Movement Point when entering Forest tiles (essentially treating them like Grassland in terms of movement speed). Any units stacked with Alorra enjoy the same bonus, so the entire stack may move at good speed through such tiles. The Strategy Guide states that '''Alorra' should have the Forester, Mountaineer, and Pathfinding abilities. Amusingly, Pathfinding would render the two other abilities redundant. In any case, in the actual game she only receives Forester anyway, as described above.'' Experience The following table illustrates how Alorra's various skills and attributes increase as she gains Experience. Attributes not appearing on this list do not improve with Experience. The effects of her innate Blademaster ability have already been taken into account here. Also note that Alorra always receives 4 extra Random Abilities which may also increase with Experience, and may adjust any of the attributes listed below! Average Damage Output The following table shows Alorra's average output with each of her attacks, based on her current Experience Level. The effects of her innate Blademaster ability have already been taken into account here. Note that this table completely ignores bonuses from Magical Items, if any. You can use the checkboxes to see the effect of some of the Random Abilities that Alorra may pick at the start of each game. Improvement Overview As with any other Hero, Alorra can eventually become very powerful as she gains Experience. She's not too shabby at low Experience Levels either, especially if making good use of her Ranged Attacks. Alorra's fastest-growing property is her , which is quickly boosted by her Blademaster trait with each Experience Level. Both of her attacks will become quite dangerous early on as a result. Remember that Alorra can gain up to 3 additional Random Abilities, any of which might grow with Experience as well. In general, such gradually-improving abilities are very desirable for her, but not all abilities are useful. Ability Overview Ranged Attack x8 * This unit may use a instead of a Melee Attack up to 8 times in each battle. Once the unit's ammo is expended, it must resort to Melee Attacks. Blademaster * This Hero gains for every 2 Experience Levels, starting at level 2 ("Myrmidon"). * This To Hit bonus applies to all of the Hero's attacks. Caster ( ) * This Hero may cast spells during combat, withdrawing from his/her own personal Mana Pool to do so. * The Hero may spend only per battle. This Mana Pool is reset at the end of each battle - assuming the Hero survives at all. * With each gained, this Hero receives a permanent bonus of . * Spellcasting takes up all of the Hero's remaining Movement Points for the turn. * While this Hero is inside his/her employer's Fortress town, the owner's Spell Skill is increased by half the value of the Hero's Caster ability. Forester * This unit may move through any Forest tile at a rate of 1 Movement Point per tile. * When this unit is stacked with other units, the entire stack may move through Forest tiles at a rate of 1 Movement Point per tile. Random Abilities When a new game is started, the program randomly chooses 4 additional abilities for Alorra. These are called Random Abilities. The selection is done completely at random (while observing a limit on the strength of certain abilities) from the list below: Whichever Random Abilities were picked, they are permanent. Alorra will never re-randomize her abilities during the course of a single game. She may, however, pick different abilities in the next game. If Alorra picks the Blademaster ability, it will upgrade her existing Blademaster to "Super Blademaster". This gives her a bonus of per Experience Level, instead of the normal . Note that 5%'s are rounded down after Alorra's total To Hit has been calculated. Blademaster cannot be picked more than once. The Charmed, Lucky and Noble abilities may only be picked once each, since they have no "Super" version. All other abilities (except Caster) may be picked either once or twice. If this occurs, Alorra receives the "Super" version of that ability, which is 50% stronger than the standard version. The most useful Random Abilities for Alorra are probably Might, Agility and Constitution. "Super" versions of these abilities are good - but it's always better to get a wider variety. Note that only two abilities will increase Alorra's Ranged Attack effectiveness: Lucky or Super Blademaster (both by affecting ). Some of the other abilities in the list above are also useful for Alorra, but to a much lesser degree. In particular, Caster can have great advantages - but is a bit tricky for this combat-oriented hero. Note also that Alorra can pick the Arcane Power ability - but that would be completely wasted on her - it does not improve her Ranged Attack and does not turn it into a . It does absolutely nothing. If Alorra gets Super Arcane Power, she may end up being very underpowered for her high cost. Equipment Alorra the Elven Archer has the following item slots: This set-up contributes to either Melee combat or Ranged combat. Alorra can pick either role, and can be surprisingly effective in each of them. Recommended Items Alorra's choice of items must be inspected carefully, because it can greatly influence her use in combat. Though defensive bonuses are excellent in all circumstances, she can choose weapon and jewelry bonuses to either augment her stronger attacks, improve her weaker attacks, or possibly even concentrate on spellcasting - and it's all up to which Random Abilities she has selected. Weapon :Alorra's weapon slot can take one of four types of weapons: a Sword, a Mace, an Axe or a Bow. Depending on whether you wish to improve her Melee Attack or Ranged Attack, the choice can be very difficult. :If Alorra has received Might as her Random Ability, then her attack strength with a Melee weapon will quickly improve even without added bonuses. This can make a Sword the most desirable weapon, especially if one is found that also bestows bonuses. :Alternatively, a pick of the Constitution and/or Agility traits make Alorra so survivable that she can stick with a Mace or Axe - gaining better offensive bonuses and no defensive ones. :Naturally, granting Alorra a Bow is a good choice for a Ranged Attack Hero, and is mostly recommended if Alorra has picked either Lucky or another level of Blademaster. It may also be the better choice in case Alorra's Random Abilities contribute little or nothing to any of her offensive or defensive properties - in which case she's better off staying further back during combat. On the other hand, remember that Alorra can only use her up to 8 times per battle, so unless you can find a very powerful Bow, stick with augmenting her . :Unless Alorra has received the Caster skill, you can safely ignore any ("Spell Skill") bonuses on the weapon. These only improve , which Alorra never possesses. Armor :Alorra's armor choices are simpler than her weapon choices. An armor piece with heavy bonuses is usually the best choice, and especially if mixed with good bonuses. :Note that the importance of good armor decreases if Alorra possesses the Agility or Constitution Random Abilities, as these augment her defensive properties (especially as she gains Experience). It's not an excuse for neglecting bonuses, but does mean that stronger armor is less important. :Movement Allowance bonuses of +1 or +2 can be very helpful for this hero, especially if she is going to use a Ranged Attack. Jewelry :With only a single piece of Jewelry available, Alorra needs to choose one that is absolutely best for her skills. :In case Alorra has either Agility or Constitution, defensive bonuses from the Jewelry are less important, and you can concentrate on adding Attack Strength and bonuses. Note that such bonuses on Jewelry will augment both of Alorra's attacks - and are thus superior to bonuses given by her weapon. A powerful offensive Jewelry piece can be extremely valuable. :On the other hand, without Agility, Constitution and a good armor piece, Alorra's Jewelry must be used to improve her and/or scores, lest she fall in combat. Try to get both stats to at least 12! :If Alorra gets the Caster skill, some players would be inclined to use Jewelry to augment her magical abilities, either through extra or penalties. Neither is truly recommended, since Alorra will never be as useful a spellcaster as she is a combat hero, but they can help nonetheless. Acquisition Alorra the Elven Archer can be acquired in one of three different methods: * By hiring her as she comes to visit your Fortress town, * By casting the Summon Champion spell, * By Resurrecting her after she has been killed in battle. Hiring Alorra Every once in a while, a Hero will arrive at your Fortress town to ask for employment. The frequency of this event depends on your current score, the number of Heroes already under your employ, and whether or not you have particular Retorts that affect this chance. In order for Alorra to appear for hire in this way, you must meet several requirements: # You must have at least . # You must have sufficient in your treasury to hire Alorra (more on this below). # Alorra must not have already been killed in battle. Since the game randomly chooses which Hero appears during this event, there's no guarantee that Alorra will ever appear. The chance, however, increases if the number of other valid Heroes dwindles (such as when most other Heroes have died in battle). The default Hiring Cost for Alorra is . This is reduced to if your wizard has the Charismatic Retort. If you do not have this much at the start of a turn (after paying all Upkeep Costs), Alorra will not appear for hire. In fact, if she is picked as the Hero who approaches you, and you lack the money to hire her, you are effectively forfeiting your chance to hire any Hero this turn. After agreeing to hire Alorra (you can always refuse), you may give her any name you choose - she will be known as " the Elven Archer". Her overland unit will appear at your Fortress town or, if that town's garrison is full, next to your Fortress town. Summoning Alorra As a Champion, Alorra the Elven Archer can only be summoned using the Summon Champion spell. Once the spell is completed, the game chooses a random Champion to bring to your Fortress from a list of all available and valid Champions. Therefore, there is no guarantee that Alorra will appear when this spell is cast, unless all other Champions are unavailable. Again, you get a chance to agree or refuse to hire Alorra. If you agree, she will appear in your Fortress town and/or next to it. If Alorra is hired through the use of Summon Champion, there is no need to pay any Hiring Cost. However, you may still need to pay an Upkeep Cost (see below). Resurrecting Alorra For most wizards, losing Alorra in battle removes her from the game permanently. She will never appear again. For -wielding wizards, however, who have access to the Resurrection spell, it is possible to bring Alorra back to life after she has died. In this case, Alorra returns to your Fortress town, with no Magical Items, but keeping all Experience she had prior to her death. You may repeatedly resurrect Alorra each time she dies. Upkeep Costs Once Alorra is in your employ, you must pay her an Upkeep Cost of at the start of each and every turn. Failure to pay this price due to lack of results in Alorra leaving your employ. This is not permanent however: Alorra may still be acquired in any of the above methods with no penalty. Note that if Alorra picks the Noble Random Ability, she will demand no Upkeep Costs - and instead contribute to your treasury every turn! Alternate Names Other wizards can also have a Elven Archer, but they are different characters (what happens to one has no effect on the others), and go by different names, as follows: Category:Units Category:Heroes Category:Champions